WALNUT – Johnny Gray is making a believer out of half-miler Duane Solomon.

Gray is convinced that Solomon, a former USC All-American, can not only break Gray’s nearly 29-year-old American 800-meter record but can also challenge the likes of Kenya’s David Rudisha, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist and current world record-holder, and Ethiopia’s Mohamed Aman, the 2013 World champion.

Solomon is starting to buy into the notion as well if his dominant front running exhibition at the Mt. SAC Relays on Saturday is any indication.

Leading from the opening gun, Solomon blazed a 1-minute, 43.88-second victory, one of the fastest 800s ever by an American this early in the season. After burning through the opening 400 in 50.5 and the 600 at 1:16.6, Solomon was just as bold following his win, saying he wants to break Gray’s American record at the Prefontaine Classic on May 31.

Solomon turned 8 months old on August 28, 1985, the day Gray, running for the Santa Monica Track Club, set the mark, running 1:42.60 in Koblenz, Germany. It remains the oldest American record in a track event competed in at the Olympic Games or World Championships.

While Solomon has had the ability to break the record and hang with Rudisha & Co., he didn’t have the belief he could do either, said Gray, who coaches Solomon in Orlando, where the former UCLA assistant is on the Central Florida staff.

“I’ve just got to believe I can run with them,” Solomon said. “Don’t be tentative, just believe in myself. The past two years has been all about building confidence.”

The confidence wasn’t there in the 2012 Olympic final captured by Rudisha’s electrifying 1:40.91 world record.

“At the Olympics Duane thought he was out of it at 300 so he shut it down,” Gray recalled. “Then he started to get back in it and ended up getting fourth in (1:42.82). He’s there. He just has to believe in himself. He can break the American record. He’s there right now.”

Should Solomon break the American record Gray would join Bill Dellinger, the first in Oregon’s storied line of distance running greats, as a former American record-holder coaching an athlete to the American record in the same event. Dellinger guided Steve Prefontaine, Matt Centrowitz and Alberto Salazar to American records in the 5,000. Salazar has since coached Galen Rupp to the American record at 10,000, a mark Salazar once held.

“History re-set,” Gray said.

While Solomon appears to be on the brink of history, Olympic decathlon Ashton Eaton’s 400-meter hurdles adventure is, as expected, a work in progress.

The former Oregon star, running the 400 hurdles for the first time, finished fourth in 50.01 seconds, a performance that left him both frustrated and encouraged. Jeshua Anderson won the race at 49.43.

By his admission, Eaton said he had no idea what to expect Saturday, the roll out of his year-long focus on the 400 hurdles. He had never run a full 400 over hurdles even in training before Saturday.

He managed to maintain 13 steps between hurdles through six hurdles before having to switch 14 steps which requires alternating lead legs. It was then that he got into trouble.

“I wanted to make moves like I would in the 400 and a hurdle would come up,” he said continuing to laugh.

“Honestly if I get my steps down I’ll be pretty good to go. I don’t think there’s any reason I wouldn’t be able to run 48 now after doing the race. Beforehand I had no idea but now I think 48 is possible.”

Saturday also seemed to open new possibilities for Oregon sprinters Phyllis Francis and Jenna Prandini.

Prandini teamed up with Francis, Marybeth Sant and Jasmine Todd for a world leading 43.31 victory in the 400 relay, and then came back in the 100 to run, literally and figuratively, out of the shadow of former Duck teammate English Gardner, the multiple NCAA champion.

Frandini was clocked in a personal best 11.11 with Gardner fourth at 11.31.

Francis followed up her relay duty by gauging herself against a world class 400 field that included two Olympic medalists.

“Just a bench mark for me, to see where I’m at,” Francis said.

Where she’s at is among the best in the world. Building on her two collegiate record performance in leading Oregon to the team title at last month’s NCAA Indoor championships, Francis was a convincing winner Saturday, finishing in 51.57 seconds, well ahead of DeeDee Trotter, an Olympic 1,600 relay champion (52.42). Former World 400 hurdles champion Lashinda Demus was fourth in 52.82.

Still Francis said she doesn’t see herself in such exclusive company.

“I’ll still be nervous next time I race them,” she said. “they went to the Olympics.”

Francis was reminded that Saturday seemed to indicate she also had Olympic potential.

Scott M. Reid is a sports enterprise/investigative reporter for the Orange County Register. He also covers Olympic and international sports as well as the Los Angeles’ bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games. His work for the Register has led to investigations by the International Olympic Committee, the U.S. Department of Education, the California Legislature, and the national governing bodies for gymnastics and swimming. Reid's 2011 reporting on wide spread sexual abuse within USA Gymnastics and the governing body's failure to effectively address it led to Don Peters, coach of the 1984 record-setting Olympic team, being banned from the sport for life. His reporting also prompted USA Gymnastics to adopt new guidelines and policies dealing with sexual abuse. Reid's 2012 and 2013 reporting on sexual abuse within USA Swimming led to the banishment of two top level coaches. Reid has won 11 Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting since 1999. He has also been honored by APSE for game writing, and enterprise, news, and beat reporting. He was an Investigative Reporters and Editors award finalist in 2002 and 2003. Prior to joining the Register in 1996, Reid worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Dallas Times Herald. He has a B.A. in the History of the Americas from the University of Washington.

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